8 flights cancelled due to internet cable fault

Islamabad-At least eight domestic and international flights at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport were cancelled on Sunday due to countrywide internet disruptions caused by a submarine cable fault.

Airport officials said that the reason behind the cancellation of flights was the slow internet caused by a fault in the India-Middle East-Western Europe submarine cable, due to which flight schedules and ticket booking could not be confirmed.

It is difficult to tell when the flight schedule will be back to normal, the officials said, adding that flights would resume fully when internet services are restored.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) have not specified how long it will take to restore internet services in the country.

The PTCL spokesperson said earlier that Jeddah has started making efforts to repair the cable, but added that “restoring the network will take some time.”

Two other submarine cables, SEA-ME-WE 4 and TW1, have been offline since last month due to similar flaws, which has resulted in a bottleneck after I-ME-WE’s breakdown.

The loss of these three submarine cables leaves Pakistan relying on SEA-ME-WE 3, SEA-ME-WE 5 and the AAE-1 submarine cables, out of which SEA-ME-WE 3 operates in a limited capacity, while the other two were installed only recently.